Yard work and similar tasks (e.g., raking leaves, cutting grass, shoveling snow, etc.) are prohibitively difficult for some individuals. For example, removing leaves is a problem for some people. In particular, removing leaves is a very tiring and time-consuming task for many, especially for the elderly and the disabled. The problem is compounded by the need to repeat the task multiple times each season. Manual raking takes a lot of time especially if an individual has a large yard. Continuous raking over a long period of time is very time consuming and can lead to injury even for an average person. As but one example, there were 12,000 injuries in 2004 due to raking leaves. Similarly, there are accounts of people suffering heart attacks when doing strenuous activities such as shoveling snow.
There are many devices specifically suited to yard work and associated tasks, such as rakes, brooms, vacuums, leaf blowers, lawnmowers, etc. Operating such devices can be challenging, if not impossible, for some people. Moreover, although using a leaf blower can decrease the time it takes to rake the yard in less than half the time it takes to use a hand rake, there is a large amount of human manipulation and handling of the leaf blower during the process.